Nuclear power plants are typically operated and maintained by operators in cooperation with their supplier or vendors and are managed under strict rules and regulations issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) within the Department of Energy (DOE). One such example is a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) wherein water passing through the reactor is heated by the energy released from nuclear reactions emanating enriched uranium fuel rods placed within the reactor core, creating steam vapor directly in the reactor core. As the enriched fuel within these nuclear fuel rods is expended over time, the nuclear power plant must be periodically shutdown to replace or reload the spent fuel rods with fresh fuel rods, and properly store the discharged spent radioactive fuel rods.
In preparation for the refueling operation, nuclear reactor operators must perform NRC-defined safety and licensing on the reconfigured nuclear reactor fuel loading and submit the results of these analyses as a formal report to the NRC, thereby adhering to the NRC's Reload License Analysis (RLA) requirements. These reports are submitted on standard forms and include projections of the expected operation of the current fuel loading as well as operational projections for the power plant after the fuel rods are replaced in the reconfigured core loading. Upon review of the submitted RLA analyses and their approval by the NRC, a license can be issued to the operator to proceed with the scheduled refueling operation and to bring the reactor back into operation.
The Reload License Analysis (RLA) requires plant operating and engineering personnel to sequentially perform a series of assessments, data collection and analyses that document historical, current and projected future plant operating conditions as well as key expected performance results. After each analysis package or module is run its results must be verified. The assessments and analyses include establishing ranges of acceptable inputs and outputs for various parameters and comparing analysis results to these acceptable data ranges. Currently, the systems and methods utilized for reload licensing require a substantial investment in time and engineering resources and result long RLA lead-times for the reactor operator; all of which are costly and restrictive for operation of a nuclear reactor.